A serious study of Christian Science has completely changed my habitual way of looking at the world and myself. Numerous disappointments, accumulated throughout my human experience, had taken away my love of life and my desire to share with others and love unconditionally. Searching everywhere for the true meaning of life, I plunged deeper and deeper into a painfully confused state, which quickly became intolerable. Nothing here on earth thrilled me anymore. There was only one way out for me: to find my God again.

Even though I had heard that one of my close friends was studying a religion that healed people of all their troubles, I remained unbelieving and distant. I had become a freethinker, and it was a matter of personal pride for me to rely solely on my own understanding of the deep things of life to solve my problems. I would take care of myself all alone!

Occasionally I would hear of a marvelous healing that had happened to someone I knew. I was moved, and deep within I silently believed. I had always loved and searched for God, but I had lost Him along the way. I wanted tangible evidence of His love for me and for others. I wanted to feel my heart burn with love for Him, as it had done when I was a child.

One evening when my suffering reached a climax, I went to the home of the friend who was studying the healing religion. That was the beginning of my deliverance! This person worked as a Christian Science practitioner. I asked him if I could be healed of constant fatigue and if I could regain my love of life and my sense of wonder. "Of course!" was the reply. "Nothing is impossible to God." Where were those books that were healing us all? I asked. What were they? That evening, with the heaviness in my heart lifted, I took home with me the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I already knew that I had found my way again.

In the weeks that followed I was freed from a painful sense of rejection—almost of hatred—toward a certain class of people in my own ethnic group. In my eyes they were hopeless: unrefined, timidly agreeable or excessively aggressive, afraid of the slightest thing, having lost any sense of courtesy in society, not very well educated, and lacking in ideals. I suffered at the sight of a people who, unlike most of the foreigners I knew, seemed to be going nowhere and taking no control of their life.

The pain of this rejection of my people was doubled by the great love I had felt for them, having done everything possible to help them emerge from their supposed status of second-class citizen. At this time I had just begun reading Science and Health. Certain passages impressed me deeply. I knew, however, that I was a long way from understanding the fullness of their true meaning, since I was still so self-centered.

I learned that in Christian Science the needs of a mortal are not ignored but that the emphasis is never put on mortal man, marked with many imperfections, but on spiritual man alone, the sinless reflection of his creator. Spiritual man is made in the likeness of God, in His image. Man is therefore already perfect, beautiful, possessing all the divine faculties, completed by the very Principle of his life, God! This was a comforting view, which finally cleansed my heart and filled it with compassion and true love. Not the personal love I had tried to give without much result but a love based on a rock, on a growing understanding of the nature of God and of His tender relation to His idea, spiritual man.

I also learned that the real man does not live here or there at a restricted point on earth, subject to all the implications of developing in one country rather than in another. Man lives in the kingdom of God, right now; he lives in the divine consciousness, loved, protected, and constantly governed by God Himself. Oh, what a beautiful discovery! I had always wanted to love everyone, but my disenchantment was such that I felt no longer capable of loving sincerely and spontaneously. I carefully chose those whom I thought worthy of my love, and there weren't many!

One afternoon I went out to do some shopping with a friend. Suddenly those same people—people I couldn't look at before without feeling demoralized—appeared so beautiful to me as they wandered along the busy streets! I saw them as if they were surrounded with light. I no longer looked at them from a critical and destructive point of view; I had just rediscovered the respect due to others. It was marvelous.

From that moment on, my interest in the study of Christian Science never stopped growing. I had such a desire to know God and put my life in order! Through daily contact with the practitioner I was shortly healed of a chronic ear infection. This problem had lasted for thirteen years. The practitioner drew my attention to the fact that it was not a physical organ that needed healing but a false view of my identity in relation to the world and Life. I had to stop all destructive criticism, either silent or voiced, and replace this bad habit with kindness and love for others. I had to see them as perfect, which is how God sees them. I had to take the time to be silent and let God speak to me. Our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, writes in Science and Health, "Hatred and its effects on the body are removed by Love." ^{Science and Health, p. 374.}

I had rejected both my fellowmen and society in general. I held them responsible for all the evils! I was convinced that my duty was to rebel constantly against everything that didn't run smoothly in the world and around me. When tension and fear raged within me, I became ill. There were bad headaches, depression, fears, and panicky feelings. I had trouble sleeping well and digesting normally. Since I had always been in good health, these unusual conditions discouraged me. But the love, patience, and generosity of the practitioner and my desire to change in order to return to the source of my life caused these symptoms to disappear.

"Love makes all burdens light, it giveth a peace that passeth understanding, and with 'signs following,' " Mrs. Eddy writes. "As to the peace, it is unutterable; as to 'signs,' behold the sick who are healed, the sorrowful who are made hopeful, and the sinful and ignorant who have become 'wise unto salvation'!" ^{Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 133–134.}

Gradually a magnificent peace came to me. I regained my calm, my taste for singing and laughter, for sharing the most beautiful joys of existence! Now I know I am the beloved child of God, as each of us is, whatever the appearance and situation. Man's purity and perfection always have been and always will be unassailable. This is a divine law.

One of the most precious joys is the happiness felt in spiritualizing one's thought as taught in Christian Science, the Science of Christ. We learn to see the world in a completely different light, in the light of Spirit, God. When I decided to study this Science, I wanted first of all to know who I was, where I was going, where we were all going, and how I could get closer to the author of life and my fellowmen. I have found all of this, and my joy is immense.

"Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves." ^{Isa. 49:8, 9.}

Let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.... And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

I John 3:18, 22, 23